THE Unesco World Heritage Committee meeting in Suzhou, China, has been described as a global version of Eurovision.

More than 600 delegates spent ten days hammering out which bids for world heritage status would succeed or fail.

Liverpool's world heritage officer John Hinchcliffe said: "It was a very tense affair. "You see bids being rejected for all kinds of reasons and you have no idea what anyone will ask you.

"There is nothing like a show of hands at the meeting. The decisions are made by discussion and consensus, so you can imagine how long that can take.

"Britain is very well respected at this meeting. A lot of countries were waiting for Britain's view and followed our lead."

But Britain's nominations were by no means given an easy time by the delegates.

Before Liverpool was considered, an application by the remote Scottish island of St Kilda to be a cultural WHS was rejected.

Mr Hinchcliffe said: "People in Scotland thought it would sail through. The delegates agreed an extension to its natural site but then a member from Egypt said he could not see what was so special about the cultural aspects of the island."

When it came to Liverpool's turn, which lasted an hour, the Egyptian delegate was the first to stand up.

John Hinchcliffe said: "We thought crikey. He's just sunk St Kilda's bid and now he is going to tear into us."

But the delegate spoke passionately of the city's cultural diversity and its racial tolerance - he had been to university in the city and married a girl from Birkenhead.

Winning bid teams were asked to read out a poem in thanks for the accolade to the meeting.

After the judges announced Liverpool's bid was successful, city planning officer Nigel Lee recited two versus from the Beatles' 1966 hit In My Life.

Mr Hinchcliffe added: "It was a great feeling to win. We obviously were talking to people back home late into the night. We didn't have a big party really. I think we celebrated like Bob Paisley - with a good cup of tea."